Last interview question you’ll ever need: Kobayashi Maru

It’s becoming more and more difficult to assess candidates. People can easily google “interview questions” and get 833 Million results. Websites offer “smart answers to tough interview questions“. They can tell you exactly what questions were asked last week at Google. Sites go as far as coaching you on what emotions to show and what corny jokes to tell. It’s an interviewing arms race that has interviewers searching for more and more inane questions like “Why is a manhole round?” and interviewees feeling like they’re studying for a standardized test.

In Star Trek lore, there’s a test at starfleet academy called the Kobayashi Maru. It’s a no-win situation where either you let a Federation ship get destroyed or get yourself destroyed by attacking the Klingon fleet. The simulation is designed to see how cadets react to an impossible situation. I use this same strategy in my interviews. I present them with a scenario that is relevant to the particular job but let them explore and struggle through the simulation. I even play the evil computer program and change the assumptions as I go. No two interviews are the same. For example, for web developers the scenario is that having just programmed your app, you check it out in a browser and see a blank page. What do you do?

The nature of work is changing. The interview methods of the past don’t meet the needs of today’s jobs, which require more creative problem-solving and less memorization and assembly line widget-building. What you really want is to see how candidates think and handle new situations. It’s quite easy to tailor this test for your needs. Hiring a systems engineer? Put them in an outage situation and ask them what to do. You’ll find out within 5 minutes or less whether you want that person handling your servers. If you’re looking to get hired, impress me with your knowledge of the system. Bonus points for cheating.